6 Graphic "Novels" for Computing teachers
Book reviewing, by Terry Freedman
The following article was first published in my newsletter, Digital Education.
What I’ve been reading: 6 of the best graphic books
If you’re looking for some good reading material, these “graphic novel” books may be just what you need. They’re all non-fiction, hence the quotation marks. Each of the links below is an Amazon affiliate link.
Dear Data
We’re used to thinking about big data in the form of computerised records and in relation to matters like attainment and attendance. However, this delightful book has a novel spin on the concept of data. The authors, Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec, spent a year recording facts such as how many times they used their phones in a day, what kind of doors they passed through and what sounds they heard. In each case they drew the results -- no spreadsheets here!
From one perspective, the whole exercise was silly, but it has several serious aspects. First, it’s astonishing just how much data we are exposed to but don’t consciously notice. For example, how many animals have you seen today? Secondly, it’s interesting to see the many ways in which data can be presented.
It’s a large format book, and a great one for dipping into. Perhaps it will even inspire some lesson activities.
Here’s the review I wrote for Teach Secondary magazine: Dear Data.
Amazon link: Dear Data
Mysteries of the Quantum Universe
This book seeks to make quantum mechanics more understandable. I read it in the hope that it would help me to gain a deeper understanding of how quantum computers will work. I think it has, but don’t ask me to explain how.
I was either eminently qualified to review this book, or eminently unqualified, because I managed to learn virtually nothing about physics in my five years of secondary schooling. I did find this book helpful though. First, being in the form of a graphic novel, it’s much less daunting than a textbook might be. Secondly, the hero and his dog meet lots of famous scientists on their journey, people like Einstein, Bohr and Heisenberg, each of whom explain their theories in simple-ish terms.
There are explanatory notes at the back of the book, to fill out any gaps in the body of the book.
If you’re looking for a gentle introduction to this subject, or know someone who is, this book is worth considering.
Mysteries of the Quantum Universe
Baking with Kafka
This book is not a graphic novel, and has little to do with Kafka -- or baking for that matter. One of the things I liked to do as a teacher was ask the kids to apply today's technology to a completely different context. For instance, how might someone like Oliver Cromwell used the internet?
You can find more ideas like that, and get a better idea of what I'm talking about, from the article Shock tactics: 7 ideas for teaching with technology.
Cartoonist Tom Gauld has done a similar thing in some of his cartoons featured in his new book, Baking with Kafka.
For example, there is the e-reader used book simulation, which includes simulated coffee stains and an old book smell. Also, libraries of the future, a Jane Austen-type dialogue with emojis, and others.
A great, sideways look at modern life.
My drawing below was inspired by one of the cartoons in the book. I don't think he'll feel threatened by me somehow!
Soonish
This book isn’t a graphic novel either, but I thought I’d include it in this list because it has some great cartoons. The book looks at new or about to appear technologies. It’s authoritative, really interesting, and a great companion for the teacher of Computing who wants to keep up with current developments in technology.
The book covers a range of topics including programmable matter, augmented reality and brain-computer interfaces. It sounds like it could be heavy-going, but the subtitle of the book will give you an idea of its approach: Ten emerging technologies that’ll improve and/or ruin everything. The nice thing about the book is that although it deals with serious subjects and explores what various experts and evangelists are doing and saying, the authors have their feet very firmly planted on the ground. One comment, for example, is (after an explanation of where a particular idea is headed): “What could possibly go wrong?”
Not everything in the book is (directly) related to computing, but it’s interesting enough to read anyway. Related: My review of Soonish on the Teachwire website, which I’ve republished here:
It is not often that one comes across a book that covers developments in science, computing and biology in a way that is not only interesting, but down-to-earth.
Soonish (subtitled: ten emerging technologies that will improve and/or ruin everything) looks at what might be termed the ‘near future’: what people are working on now, and how it could develop.
For example, augmented reality is with us now in the form of apps, but in the works are AR glasses and a smart hard hat.
Each chapter includes sections called Concerns, How it would change the world, and others.
Humour appears in the form of cartoons, and comments like “What could possibly go wrong?” and “Personally, we find the idea slightly terrifying.”
With chapters on bio-printing, robotics, brain-computer interfaces, space and other topics, Soonish should provide plenty of food for thought and ideas with which to enthuse your students.
Amazon link: Soonish
The trouble with women
Another book of cartoons, this time illustrating some of the things (famous) men have said about women. When I was reading about Ada Lovelace I found it quite appalling that in her days men thought women were too mentally fragile to cope with mathematics or science.
In this book, Jackie Fleming ridicules that kind of thinking, sometimes by repeating what people like Darwin said -- she continually refers to Darwin and others as ‘geniuses’, and it becomes quite obvious fairly quickly that she does not quite regard them as geniuses when it comes to their ‘scientific’ conclusions about women. (The constant references to ‘genius’ is similar to Marc Anthony’s speech in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, in which he keeps referring to Brutus et al as ‘honourable men’.)
At other times, the cartoons and statements are silly, but no more so than the attitudes being ridiculed. For example, studying too much made women’s hair fall out.
A good corrective to some of the daft things men have said about women (and still do).
The thrilling adventures of Lovelace and Babbage
What might have happened had Lovelace not died young, and had Babbage’s Analytical Engine been built? It’s an intriguing thought, but we may have seen the first computer appear a century earlier than it did. That’s the premise that this book is based on.
As well as being humorous, the book is based on real events and serious mathematics. For the sake of moving the narrative along the author, Sydney Padua, sometimes uses poetic licence over the timing of some events, but the ‘meat’ of the book is sound.
It actually contains the best, not to say funniest, explanation of Boolean logic I’ve ever come across. Mr Boole knocks on the door of the Babbage residence. The footman answers, and says “Won’t you come in?”, to which Boole replies “No”, and then walks in. This is, of course, perfectly logical, because the footman has said, in effect, “Will you not come in?”, to which Boole has replied, “No, I will not not come in.” Marvellous stuff, backed up by copious research and numerous references.
Related: my original review of this book. Also look at Padua’s article, The marvellous analytical engine: how it works, which includes animations.
